Zune Death Watch: Microsoft Zune Revenues Plummet — Microsoft has revealed in a Security and Exchange Commission filing that the company's Zune revenue in the 4th quarter of 2008 was less than half of what it was the previous year. — According to the filing, “Zune platform revenue decreased $100 million …

Palm to Apple: Bring It … Though Apple COO Tim Cook didn't mention any companies by name in his recent warning to those who would take liberties with Apple's intellectual property, it was clear to whom he was referring: Palm. — Palm, whose new Pre handset, though built around …

February 1: Verizon Wireless Reimagines The Home Phone — Innovative Verizon Hub Helps Manage Busy Lives and Helps Users Stay Connected to Family and Community — BASKING RIDGE, NJ — In a dynamic move sure to rattle devotees of plain old home phones, Verizon Wireless will introduce the new Verizon Hub on Feb. 1.

AT&T dropping unlimited data and messaging to $30 — Info's flowing fast and furious on this whole MEdia Net thing now, and it turns out that there's more than just a name change involved. MEdia Basic, MEdia Works, MEdia Max 200, and MEdia Net 1MB are all going away (one megabyte, seriously? …

Al Gore headlining Google event: Google Ocean? — Layoffs and other expense controls show that Google isn't immune to mundane economic realities. But the company's cool factor is still intact, judging by the fact that it signed up former Vice President Al Gore to speak at a Google Earth event next month.

Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Slow It Down — Four firms that ranked among the top 10 most active U.S. venture firms in each of the first three quarters of 2008 didn't make the top 10 list in the fourth quarter of last year, according to new Thomson Reuters' data.

Apple nano Owners Gettin' A Little Extra ‘Scratch’ — Four years in the making, it looks like those early adopters of the Apple [AAPL Loading... () ] iPod nano will be getting a little relief, in the form of a $22 million class-action suit filed against the company because the devices scratched too easily.

Skype Sees a Bright Future; Will It Be Spun Off? — When asked by Wall Street analysts if eBay was going to spin out Skype, CEO John Donahue answered with something that resembled a maybe. In a comment worthy of a former consultant, Donahue said, “I think we are now confident …

Obama's Black-Ops BlackBerry — It appears that President Barack Obama gets to keep his BlackBerry after all, but some experts are questioning whether the Research In Motion device will provide enough security for the president. — At a press conference Thursday, a White House spokesman …

Are today's Macs related to the Mac Daddy? — The MacBook Air seems a long way off from the original Macintosh. But according to some, there remains some hereditary DNA from its 1984-era ancestor. — (Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News) — What is a Macintosh?

‘Vista Capable’ case could cost Microsoft $8.5B — Expert estimates damages based on 19.4 million Vista Capable PCs — Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. would have to come up with as much as $8.5 billion to settle accounts with the customers affected by its 2006 “Vista Capable” marketing program …

Radically Reinventing Venture Capital — Last month, I moderated a panel discussion about reinventing the venture capital model. I'll be doing the same next Friday in New York. In both cases, the underlying thesis was that the venture capital model is broken at worst, and dysfunctional at best.

In The Valley, Even Stanford GSB Feels The Pinch — Stanford University's Graduate School of Business earlier this month laid off 49 employees, or 12% of its staff, due to a $15 million revenue shortfall, or about 10% of its annual budget, according to Palo Alto Online, which is published by the Palo Alto Weekly.

Looking ahead and bringing you even more — I love working on Live services here at Microsoft. It's an area of the business that I'm very passionate about, and it's a lot of fun to take the products built by the Office team and extend them to the Web. — Today, I wanted to share …

10-inch Acer Aspire One officially launches — Acer have officially announced the 10-inch Aspire One netbook, complete with a WSVGA 1024 x 600 LED-backlit display, standard WiFi b/g and Bluetooth, and up to 2GB of RAM. As with its 8.9-inch predecessor, the new Aspire One uses an Intel Atom CPU …

Monster.com Reports Theft of User Data — Monster.com is advising its users to change their passwords after data including e-mail addresses, names and phone numbers were stolen from its database. — The break-in comes just as the swelling ranks of the unemployed are turning to sites like Monster.com to look for work.

Last.fm on Android — For the past 6 months we've been on a mission to let you experience Last.fm where you want, when you want. We realize that not everyone has a web browser plugged into their home stereo and very few of us want to take our laptops on the morning jog.